The world’s thinnest touch surface proves pretty easy to type on

Half a millimeter thick—and completely flexible.

The world's thinnest touch surface has been unveiled at IFA in Berlin and it's not only half a millimeter thick—the width of a human hair—but also completely flexible.

Developed by CSR, a silicon and software solutions company based in Cambridge and California, the surface was shown off in the form of a tablet keyboard, although the technology could potentially be used to create any manner of touch-enabled surfaces, or to turn any area into a touch surface.

I went hands-on with the surface and was impressed with how easy it was to type accurately, with the only really issue being the space bar. The trackpad was perfectly responsive and even better than some I've used on certain lower-end laptops. The only real issue was that it was hard to keep the surface in one place because it tends to move around as you move your hands.

The surface can already be used to pick up handwriting or sketches made by a stylus, which makes me think it would be great for designers. I imagine it could potentially have all manner of uses, but it's likely that in the early days it will primarily be incorporated into tablet smart covers, as this was the kind of problem it was initially created to solve.

"It's a concept that came really from the engineering team. We've been working with tablets ourselves and found that onscreen keyboard aren't particularly convenient -- they take up a lot of screen space," Paul Williamson from CSR tells Wired.co.uk.

"We wanted to create something that brought that experience off the screen and tablet itself and make it wireless so we created a complete touch surface that's actually the same experience that you get on the surface of the tablet but wireless and available using Bluetooth Smart connecting it back to the tablet."

The surface is basically made from an inkjet-printed flexible membrane, which feels and looks like a piece of paper made from glossy plastic. Inside the surface is CSR's super-efficient low-power Bluetooth Smart technology, which means the surface has an excellent battery life and doesn't require frequent charging.

The inkjet printing is laid down on an incredibly thin plastic membrane that's the width of a human hair, explains Williamson. "Copper grows onto that surface in an additive way, and that creates a series of contacts which are capacitive pickup. And then as you move your finger or a capacitive stylus into range of that surface, that impact is measured and fed to CSR's Bluetooth smart chip, which then converts that into wireless messages, which appear like a normal keyboard or mouse to your operating system."

For now the surface is just a prototype to demonstrate what the technology is capable of, but it also serves a little glimpse into the future of touch-enabled devices.

Once upon a time, in a Pizza Hut, they had a Pac-Man game built into a little table. The video screen faced up and there was a trackball on two opposite sides of the table. Until now, I thought that was the epitome of surface entertainment.

Aside from the article reading like a gushing advertisement - "Inside the surface is CSR's super-efficient low-power Bluetooth Smart technology, which means the surface has an excellent battery life and doesn't require frequent charging" (note the abundant superlatives and lack of specifics) - I'm more impressed by Katie Collins' hair! Pics please...

and it's not only half a millimeter thick—the width of a human hair—but also completely flexible

is this guy some sort of yak? that's one thick hair.

Same thought, although from what I'm reading, the upper end on a human hair is in the low hundreds of micrometers. That's probably some crazy Paul Bunyan beard hair though, not what most people think of.

and it's not only half a millimeter thick—the width of a human hair—but also completely flexible

is this guy some sort of yak? that's one thick hair.

Same thought, although from what I'm reading, the upper end on a human hair is in the low hundreds of micrometers. That's probably some crazy Paul Bunyan beard hair though, not what most people think of.

I found the statement so jarring I haven't been able to get any farther into the article. I'm now far more curious about the possible existence of this mutant yak-haired person.

Once upon a time, in a Pizza Hut, they had a Pac-Man game built into a little table. The video screen faced up and there was a trackball on two opposite sides of the table. Until now, I thought that was the epitome of surface entertainment.

...and I'm writing this on a IPad.

That Pac-Man game table was the main reason why I loved going to Pizza Hut as a child!

This technology looks amazing and incredibly promising. I sure hope we see products with this coming out soon and not "5-10 years from now."

Hopefully the people who turn this into a tablet case/keyboard put some cushioning behind it, I don't know if I would want my fingers slamming into a desk at full throw thousands of times an hour (why I went with beefy tactile switches with extra stem cushions).

Hopefully the people who turn this into a tablet case/keyboard put some cushioning behind it, I don't know if I would want my fingers slamming into a desk at full throw thousands of times an hour (why I went with beefy tactile switches with extra stem cushions).

Oh don't be a wuss. I play the guitar hours per day and it's way more stressful to the fingers. They haven't fallen off yet.

Hopefully the people who turn this into a tablet case/keyboard put some cushioning behind it, I don't know if I would want my fingers slamming into a desk at full throw thousands of times an hour (why I went with beefy tactile switches with extra stem cushions).

Oh don't be a wuss. I play the guitar hours per day and it's way more stressful to the fingers. They haven't fallen off yet.

and it's not only half a millimeter thick—the width of a human hair—but also completely flexible

is this guy some sort of yak? that's one thick hair.

Same thought, although from what I'm reading, the upper end on a human hair is in the low hundreds of micrometers. That's probably some crazy Paul Bunyan beard hair though, not what most people think of.

I found the statement so jarring I haven't been able to get any farther into the article. I'm now far more curious about the possible existence of this mutant yak-haired person.

same thoughts. my eyes caught in those half-millimeter-thick hair and wasn't able to read any further!

Hopefully the people who turn this into a tablet case/keyboard put some cushioning behind it, I don't know if I would want my fingers slamming into a desk at full throw thousands of times an hour (why I went with beefy tactile switches with extra stem cushions).

I wondered how long it would take before some complained about key travel.

and it's not only half a millimeter thick—the width of a human hair—but also completely flexible

is this guy some sort of yak? that's one thick hair.

Same thought, although from what I'm reading, the upper end on a human hair is in the low hundreds of micrometers. That's probably some crazy Paul Bunyan beard hair though, not what most people think of.

I found the statement so jarring I haven't been able to get any farther into the article. I'm now far more curious about the possible existence of this mutant yak-haired person.

There are two major flaws here and I'll probably get hate from those who are in denial about their world-class cases of buyer's remorse. I speak from experience, by the way.

The first is that no flat surface can be touch typed on. I learned to type on a 1927 Underwood. I still have it and can do about 60 WPM on it (I could go faster, it has trouble keeping up). I can ramp it up to 110-120 WPM on a good quality flat-surfaced keyboard like a wired Logitech Illuminated (And it's a lot quieter than the Underwood).

On a flat-screen, forget it. I'm crawling at 20 WPM at BEST. There is no way to orient your fingers to touch type and I'm not used to looking to type anymore. So flat screen typing, no matter how pretty, thin or silent, is still an epic fail for people like me who don't want to bother with looking.

The other thing I noticed was that this was an add-on for a tablet. Talk about throwing good money after bad and complicating one's life. I mean, you're making a handicapped LAPTOP out of the stupid thing. For the cost of the tablet and the keyboard, you could have gotten a really nice laptop that had more capacity, more storage, more speed, more functions and a keyboard that you don't HAVE to look at to use, or one you had to pack separately and keep in batteries.

IMHO, manufacturers are pushing their tablets on the people because of three reasons: Profit, profit, profit. Their margins are a lot better than laptops. They break easily so they need to be replaced more often. And because people are SHEEP and buy into the latest BS gadget (apparently because it's shiny) offered by tech, the companies can make even more profit selling high margin, low cost crap to people who subconsciously miss the usual PC experience to placate them into thinking their gadget, which has almost no practical, use is seemingly somewhat more useful.

How much more complication are you going to accept into your life before you realize that tablets SUCK, ESPECIALLY at productivity? I mean, if you want to get Popeye arms holding it up to do a Farscape marathon on your couch, that's your call. But why put up with a separate keyboard, a mouse or touch pad, (because you can't be as precise with your fingers and you'll knock it over if you touch it while it's on a stand), the stand (since they don't come standard and laying it flat isn't ergonomic enough to last more than a few minutes) and a cheap, handicapped, under-powered, overpriced hunk of plastic as your computer?

Do you LIKE complication?

The last time I flew, there was a fellow doing all his stuff on a tablet. It was paired with a keyboard, touch pad, stand and all sitting on one of those little tables they have at airport cafes. We were on the same flight, as it happened. I was on my little i3 Acer in my lap closer to the boarding area where there's nothing on which to set up a tablet the way he did. They called our flight. It being Southwest, first come, first served. I was near the front of the line because all I had to do was close my laptop and stuff it into my carry-on. He spent several minutes packing away his stuff, and broke his stand because he didn't fold it up correctly. I only noticed him because he was swearing about it. He ended up near the back.

I had a good flight and could use my laptop the way I wanted to where I wanted to. All he could do was punch buttons and swear a lot. When I asked him about it, he claimed to love his tablet.

Hence my opening line. Too many people haven't really gotten over the new shiny gadget smell enough to realize how much they really stink. This article merely proves the point.

While I agree with you about people turning tablets into poor laptops, if I did own a tablet, I would like a cover with a keyboard like this. Also, for the few times you have only a tablet and need to use it as a laptop, better some semblance of a laptop than nothing at all. Since giving my wife a tablet for mother's day, her laptop lives closed under the couch. She only pulls it out for e-mails (for the better keyboard) and for researching something that requires lots of web browser tabs.

I'm a bit confused by this thing. The article is definitely a bit too gushy and takes a lot of their claims at face value with no apparent justification.

But on the other hand the technology is cool. But on the other other hand, it doesn't look flexible enough to fold up flat or roll tightly, so what is the point of the flexibility? Does it help make typing easier? On a hard flat surface, I don't see how it could. And if you don't really need the flexibility, why not er, just use the kind of touchscreen glass that the actual screen uses, and make a light, thin, separate keyboard made of gorilla glass? It is used only for typing, not for display, so scratches etc. are pretty much irrelevant, and it would be a much nicer surface, using existing technology.

And if you don't really need the flexibility, why not er, just use the kind of touchscreen glass that the actual screen uses, and make a light, thin, separate keyboard made of gorilla glass? It is used only for typing, not for display, so scratches etc. are pretty much irrelevant, and it would be a much nicer surface, using existing technology.

I just got my Surface RT (not because I'm obsessed with Microsoft, but because I found it for $200 and didn't own a tablet), and I'm able to deal with the touch cover because it's padded...but I honestly don't know what the value is of taking it even further. I mean, that touch cover is probably about 20 times the width of this thing, and it's certainly thin enough to use as a cover. For people who do a lot more typing than me, but are obsessed with touchscreens, your best option is likely one of the many hybrid computers out there.

I think to me, the main issue is having too many loose parts to your computing situation. Heck, I don't even listen to music much because I don't like the hassle of taking out my earbuds and attaching them to my phone each time. Wireless technologies help with that, but Fastrider's anecdote seemed to be plenty of indication how that doesn't solve everything.

Once upon a time, in a Pizza Hut, they had a Pac-Man game built into a little table. The video screen faced up and there was a trackball on two opposite sides of the table. Until now, I thought that was the epitome of surface entertainment.

Once upon a time, in a Pizza Hut, they had a Pac-Man game built into a little table. The video screen faced up and there was a trackball on two opposite sides of the table. Until now, I thought that was the epitome of surface entertainment.

...and I'm writing this on a IPad.

In what weird alternate reality did Pac-Man have a trackball?

I wouldn't question the feasibility of a pacman trackball controller as much as the usefulness of it. Something like that would seem a bit imprecise for the split second cornering required of a solid pacman performance.

I just got my Surface RT (not because I'm obsessed with Microsoft, but because I found it for $200 and didn't own a tablet), and I'm able to deal with the touch cover because it's padded...but I honestly don't know what the value is of taking it even further. I mean, that touch cover is probably about 20 times the width of this thing, and it's certainly thin enough to use as a cover. <snip>

I just checked and the surface keyboard is 3 mm thick, so it is 6 times the thickness. As you say, I don't know what the big deal is with this. They show it as a prototype with no texture. I'd certainly spend a few millimeters to have keys that are identifiable via touch. I'd imagine if MS wanted to get rid of the raised keys, it wouldn't be a particularly difficult thing to reduce the thickness substantially.

There are two major flaws here and I'll probably get hate from those who are in denial about their world-class cases of buyer's remorse. I speak from experience, by the way.

The first is that no flat surface can be touch typed on. I learned to type on a 1927 Underwood. I still have it and can do about 60 WPM on it (I could go faster, it has trouble keeping up). I can ramp it up to 110-120 WPM on a good quality flat-surfaced keyboard like a wired Logitech Illuminated (And it's a lot quieter than the Underwood).

On a flat-screen, forget it. I'm crawling at 20 WPM at BEST. There is no way to orient your fingers to touch type and I'm not used to looking to type anymore. So flat screen typing, no matter how pretty, thin or silent, is still an epic fail for people like me who don't want to bother with looking.

I'm anything but a fast typist (for the most part I type with two fingers, it's kind of sad really) and I just tried and I managed to get about 40-50 WPM on a tablet, which to boot I'm not exactly experienced with either. So a maximum of 20 is kind of exaggerated.

Once upon a time, in a Pizza Hut, they had a Pac-Man game built into a little table. The video screen faced up and there was a trackball on two opposite sides of the table. Until now, I thought that was the epitome of surface entertainment.

...and I'm writing this on a IPad.

In what weird alternate reality did Pac-Man have a trackball?

I wouldn't question the feasibility of a pacman trackball controller as much as the usefulness of it. Something like that would seem a bit imprecise for the split second cornering required of a solid pacman performance.

It certainly was imprecise, but it was fun as hell. Slapping that trackball and hoping you went the right direction when four ghosts were coming at you... ah, good times.

This is 100% accurate. I got a Surface Pro from my workplace and we have an iPad here at home. iPad is a convenient web browser/youtube player/Skype, nothing else. Surface pro is a decent idea, but the implementation (10" screen, and even type keyboard with small keys and irregular key placement) is terrible for doing actual work (mainly because the 10" screen with 150 magnification essentially reduces usable space to nothing, even though its 1080 vertical resolution). Add to that lack of vertical screen adjustment on a tablet to align with eyes. (Surface preset "best position" is not best for everyone and forces you to adjust your chair all the time)Bottom line, for actually doing work and producing content, tablets suck terribly.Until hardware allows a 14" tablet to convert into a full fledged 14" laptop the whole idea is exactly as you said, to make profits on people "must beat neighbor with newest shiney" thing.

There are two major flaws here and I'll probably get hate from those who are in denial about their world-class cases of buyer's remorse. I speak from experience, by the way.

The first is that no flat surface can be touch typed on. I learned to type on a 1927 Underwood. I still have it and can do about 60 WPM on it (I could go faster, it has trouble keeping up). I can ramp it up to 110-120 WPM on a good quality flat-surfaced keyboard like a wired Logitech Illuminated (And it's a lot quieter than the Underwood).

On a flat-screen, forget it. I'm crawling at 20 WPM at BEST. There is no way to orient your fingers to touch type and I'm not used to looking to type anymore. So flat screen typing, no matter how pretty, thin or silent, is still an epic fail for people like me who don't want to bother with looking.

The other thing I noticed was that this was an add-on for a tablet. Talk about throwing good money after bad and complicating one's life. I mean, you're making a handicapped LAPTOP out of the stupid thing. For the cost of the tablet and the keyboard, you could have gotten a really nice laptop that had more capacity, more storage, more speed, more functions and a keyboard that you don't HAVE to look at to use, or one you had to pack separately and keep in batteries.

IMHO, manufacturers are pushing their tablets on the people because of three reasons: Profit, profit, profit. Their margins are a lot better than laptops. They break easily so they need to be replaced more often. And because people are SHEEP and buy into the latest BS gadget (apparently because it's shiny) offered by tech, the companies can make even more profit selling high margin, low cost crap to people who subconsciously miss the usual PC experience to placate them into thinking their gadget, which has almost no practical, use is seemingly somewhat more useful.

How much more complication are you going to accept into your life before you realize that tablets SUCK, ESPECIALLY at productivity? I mean, if you want to get Popeye arms holding it up to do a Farscape marathon on your couch, that's your call. But why put up with a separate keyboard, a mouse or touch pad, (because you can't be as precise with your fingers and you'll knock it over if you touch it while it's on a stand), the stand (since they don't come standard and laying it flat isn't ergonomic enough to last more than a few minutes) and a cheap, handicapped, under-powered, overpriced hunk of plastic as your computer?

Do you LIKE complication?

The last time I flew, there was a fellow doing all his stuff on a tablet. It was paired with a keyboard, touch pad, stand and all sitting on one of those little tables they have at airport cafes. We were on the same flight, as it happened. I was on my little i3 Acer in my lap closer to the boarding area where there's nothing on which to set up a tablet the way he did. They called our flight. It being Southwest, first come, first served. I was near the front of the line because all I had to do was close my laptop and stuff it into my carry-on. He spent several minutes packing away his stuff, and broke his stand because he didn't fold it up correctly. I only noticed him because he was swearing about it. He ended up near the back.

I had a good flight and could use my laptop the way I wanted to where I wanted to. All he could do was punch buttons and swear a lot. When I asked him about it, he claimed to love his tablet.

Hence my opening line. Too many people haven't really gotten over the new shiny gadget smell enough to realize how much they really stink. This article merely proves the point.

Used to own Ipad 3, sold it now. I love the hardware (except for not having a USB port), but hated the software. In my one year and half-ish experience with it, the only way to view a power point file is:

a) convert it into pdf. I downloaded several app, and none can read and show power point files the way I saw it on the pc. this, at times, make it hard to read.b) email to yourself or using the connector and the itunes software . And I don't always bring the connector around.

As for a, I don't know if it the fault of Microsoft or what, considering once I saved it as pdf, everything become fine. un-editable as power point of course, but sometimes I just need to read the presentation slides.

b) I don't get the idea of not including a usb port.

Still, I managed to play around Surface at a computer show (sans the stylus, I think the shop afraid it would be stolen, so they didn't put one around, therefore its all touch). The screen was too small, considering they just resize Window to fit that area, things just become too small. The smart cover keyboard, trying to fit the same area, felt cramped.

However, I could feel that Surface is going to be my next tablet, unless there is a company that release a tablet with full Ubuntu (just like that edge phone, but tablet size and powered).

This is 100% accurate. I got a Surface Pro from my workplace and we have an iPad here at home. iPad is a convenient web browser/youtube player/Skype, nothing else. Surface pro is a decent idea, but the implementation (10" screen, and even type keyboard with small keys and irregular key placement) is terrible for doing actual work (mainly because the 10" screen with 150 magnification essentially reduces usable space to nothing, even though its 1080 vertical resolution). Add to that lack of vertical screen adjustment on a tablet to align with eyes. (Surface preset "best position" is not best for everyone and forces you to adjust your chair all the time)Bottom line, for actually doing work and producing content, tablets suck terribly.Until hardware allows a 14" tablet to convert into a full fledged 14" laptop the whole idea is exactly as you said, to make profits on people "must beat neighbor with newest shiney" thing.

I foresee myself using a tablet in two main ways, if I ever get one. Reading e-books and reading tech manual PDFs when I working on a printer or something where I need to consult the directions. Currently I use my smartphone for reading e-books, but it doesn't work well with pdf files that are full page only. I use my laptop for reading tech manuals. But then I have to find a place to set down the laptop, hopefully plug it in, and then lurch back and forth between the item and where ever my laptop ended up.

So useful, but not enough of a problem that I'm willing to drop $200-300 on it yet.

While I agree with you about people turning tablets into poor laptops, if I did own a tablet, I would like a cover with a keyboard like this. Also, for the few times you have only a tablet and need to use it as a laptop, better some semblance of a laptop than nothing at all. Since giving my wife a tablet for mother's day, her laptop lives closed under the couch. She only pulls it out for e-mails (for the better keyboard) and for researching something that requires lots of web browser tabs.

I think what Fatesrider may have been trying to say is that tablets are specialized media consumption devices rather than a generalized computing (or productivity) device like a laptop. As an owner of a smartphone, tablets, and laptops, I find I will always have my smartphone with me (I use it for connectivity: phone, email, IM, and the occasional light web browsing). As a person who has to be productive in the mobile sense, if I had to chose between carrying a laptop or a tablet, the laptop wins out for its more general utility. Your wife's stated usage pattern reinforces my beliefs on the matter.

I find that after the initial wow factor wore off, I hardly use the tablet at all except for specialized cases (reading in bed or if I choose not to carry my kit bag which is rare). As a technical user, I could replace the laptop with the tablet, and have tried in the past, but found my productivity dropped badly.

I feel that adding a non-tactile keyboard to a tablet won't significantly increase its productivity or utility, but convertible tablet/laptops may have a future. They just need to be more like conventional laptops where the tactile keyboard separates leaving you with the touch-enabled screen/computing unit.

People pretending that you can't type on a tablet are just old. Really, look at those who grow up with touchscreens.

I'm sure that the same people would say you could NEVER write with a pen on paper if they hadn't learned it as a child. Handwriting is HARD, it requires a sort of fine control that is almost impossible to learn if you start to learn it too late.

People pretending that you can't type on a tablet are just old. Really, look at those who grow up with touchscreens.

I'm sure that the same people would say you could NEVER write with a pen on paper if they hadn't learned it as a child. Handwriting is HARD, it requires a sort of fine control that is almost impossible to learn if you start to learn it too late.

Just look at teenagers using touchscreens.

I don't think anyone here was pretending they couldn't type on a tablet, perhaps complaining that typing on a tablet was suboptimal.

What I want to know is if this can be made transparent? It'd be a hell of a space saver as the touch interface for a tablet or smartphone. It'd be thinner than the current glass while also more shatter resistant.